For more than a decade Montreal-based D&Q has been publishing highly literate comics and graphic novels that tackle subjects ranging from autobiography to urban romance to politics. Its beautifully designed and produced books have become extremely influential in the world of alternative comics.
D&Q's publisher, Chris Oliveros, founded the press in 1990 after discovering the literary potential of comics through Art Spiegelman's Raw anthologies. "I realized that a comic could be about anything—any viewpoint, any kind of graphic approach. In other words, it could be a kind of literature." Back then, most comic publishers weren't doing books. "After Spiegelman's Maus," Oliveros said, "cartoonists became more ambitious. Instead of 24-page comic books with one story, they began serializing longer stories that could be collected into book form." Atlas, a current D&Q project by Dylan Horrocks, the New Zealand— based author of Hicksville, promises to be 1,000-pages long when it is finally released in book format.
For Oliveros, the move to books has been critical to opening up new audiences. Since D&Q published its first book in 1992, its book publishing program has grown to six or eight titles a year, with print runs ranging from 3,000— 10,000.
One of D&Q's biggest forthcoming books is Summer Blonde, a collection of stories from the serial Optic Nerve by Adrian Tomine, a 27-year-old Japanese-American who began sending Oliveros photocopied mini-comics when he was 17. Now one of D&Q's biggest sellers, Tomine's taut, efficient narratives have been critically acclaimed. Summer Blonde's initial cloth edition will have a print run of 4,000, which will be supported by a summer book tour throughout the United States and in Tokyo.
D&Q has also ventured into art books, and last year issued its first collections of non-comics art by Julie Doucet, another noted D&Q artist. Oliveros sees potential: "When people see the kinds of books we're doing and the amount of attention we pay to them, it's going to help define the reputation of the company in the long run."
